Mortal Kombat: Deception - Online Impressions

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Ed Boon whips our ass. Badly. Details inside.

By Jeremy Dunham

With Midway's upcoming fighting sequel Mortal Kombat: Deception less than a week away, it's seemed like an opportune time to give the much talked about online mode a try. Already equipped with the same final gold version that will appear in stores on Tuesday, October 4, I knew that whatever experience I had with the online option would probably be an accurate reflection of what the general populace would get as well. Besides, with so many emails coming into my inbox on a daily basis about this how this feature works anyway, the phrase "perfect timing" immediately sprung to mind.

Of course, having people play around with the online aspect of MK: Deception isn't exactly a new development -- as beta testers, journalists, and several other lucky members of the industry have been constantly testing out the feature on both the PS2 and Xbox for quite some time now. So truthfully, finding an opponent to mess around with wasn't too much of a concern for us, and we probably wouldn't have had any difficulties doing so if we tried. But for the purposes of this article and to make the stakes a little bit higher, we needed to make sure that we found someone special.

With that in mind we contacted the Mortal Kombat co-creator himself, Mr. Ed Boon, so that we could enjoy the online mayhem in the best and most informative way possible. Notorious for being the nicest guy in the business, Ed was more than happy to take us up on the offer and was ready to meet up in the squared circle with his controller and Internet connection in tow. For me this was a great opportunity, as not only would we be able to see just how smooth (or not so smooth) the MK: Deception online experience truly was, but we'd have the chance to beat the guy who help create the legendary series in the first place. To say that I was stoked was an understatement.

Ed Boon agrees with my assessment that Kobra looks like a cross between Ken Masters and Johnny from the Karate Kid. Awesome.

Getting connected wasn't an issue at all. Though I tested out both versions of the game's online selections prior to my meeting with Ed, we ultimately decided as a group that using the Xbox version of the game was probably the wisest way to go. We chose the Xbox disc not because of any one graphical, gameplay, or control advantages mind you, but because (let's face it) Xbox Live is a hell of a lot better for plug and play online gaming than the PS2 is. Even so, the connection processes for both systems are nigh identical, with a slightly different login interface for the GameSpy-powered PS2 version in comparison to Xbox Live. In terms of intuitiveness, wait times, and lobby setups, however, the differences are negligible.

Now I have to admit at first that I was a bit weary of playing Mortal Kombat online, as Ed and I couldn't get a game going for quite a few minutes. Though the interface provides simple commands like "Create-A-Game, Friends Lists, Rankings, and Optimatch", Ed was having difficulties getting his connection at his office to work properly. After a short wait and a room change for Mr. Boon, however, he connected just fine and we were off to the dance we call "Bloody."

Of course, I'd be remiss to mention that being able to talk to your opponent (in this case, Ed and myself) during the character select screen prior to the start of a match is a great feature. It allows you to discuss certain provisions that you may or may not want to agree on before the bout begins, or to just trash talk each other like our office always does. As far as the characters themselves go, however, players will only have access to the fighters they've unlocked for their own personal profiles (just like in Deadly Alliance), and your opponents will not be able to select from your pool of characters if they haven't found them themselves.